It's
difficult to know where to begin in describing the wasted mess that
is Blair Witch 2: Book of Shadows, so let's start with the
title. Nothing in the movie is referred to as the "book of
shadows," and no book or shadow plays any role in the story.
The phrase does serve to bring to mind that which made the first
film so effective, and this second one so drearily dull.
Like
it or hate it, The Blair Witch Project functioned more as a
book than most movies in the way it stripped itself down to its bare
story essence - no recognizable actors, no music, no polished
cinematography - and simply recorded a happening that left much to
the imagination of the audience. This was taken to an extreme that
miffed many members of that audience, for this was a horror movie
that never showed you the source of the horror. Those same viewers
can subject themselves to the other extreme with its sequel, a movie
which shows you everything, and tells you nothing.
Show-don't-tell
is the mantra behind most good movie storytelling, but only when
that which is shown serves to tell you something. Images without
meaning are nothing more than that. Blair Witch 2 is riddled
with the horrific hallucinations and visions of its characters, and
rarely shows any interest in distinguishing between that which is
imagined and that which is real, and even more rarely attempts to
connect them to any larger storytelling purpose. Five
twentysomethings, in the same age group as the trio that first
ventured into the Maryland woods looking to debunk or reinforce the
myth of the Blair Witch, retrace the steps of that first
group for pretty much the same reasons. They go crazy quickly, as
unexplainable events occur around them, and pretty soon they are
being questioned, in intermittent flash-forwards, in a murder case.
If
Blair Witch 2 told its story well, if it seemed to actually
have an idea of what it wanted to do and then did it, we would
simply be talking about a question of taste regarding the two
diametrically opposed movies. One deals exclusively in character,
detailing the gradual loss of sanity in the face of complete
disorientation and fright, the other deals exclusively in viscera,
slamming you with gory images, flinch cuts, and wild emoting from
the virtual start.
But
this sequel doesn't even succeed as a shock-fest. Co-writer/director
Joe Berlinger is at once a strange and fitting man for the job. This
is his first work of feature-length fiction, after working on two
very well received social justice documentaries along with his
partner Bruce Sinofsky. Brother's Keeper and Paradise Lost
each explored a case of individuals living outside of the societal
norm, whether they were uncivilized, possibly incestuous farmer
siblings or metal-head, Satan-worshipping teens, being wrongfully
accused of criminal behavior based almost solely on that appearance.
Blair Witch deals with a selection of just such characters
living outside of social conformity - a purveyor of stolen
electronics and ex-mental institution resident, a practicing female
witch with an interest only in the whiter side of her magic, and a
young woman with psychic powers who chooses to dress like Morticia
Addams. Along for the ride are the most whitebread, clean-cut of the
bunch, a young romantic couple researching the aftermath of the Blair
Witch phenomenon for their grad-school thesis.
Review by David Luty · Nitrate Online
